Vatican rethinks Islam policy

Pope John Paul II's outreach is questioned as some want stronger Catholicism, religious liberty to be priorities

Cardinal Ivan Dias, the archbishop of Bombay, has split the difference. He strongly supported Ratzinger's expression of Catholic superiority but also told a group of bishops recently that the Catholic Church "must make every effort to relate to every human being without any superiority complex."

The church's modern efforts to engage other religions with respect and humility began with the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965, which gave birth to the landmark document Nostra Aetate, or In Our Time. The document repudiated the centuries-old teaching of contempt for other faiths.

Interfaith prayers for peace

John Paul II furthered these efforts in his travels and with interfaith prayer sessions for peace, beginning with a three-day meeting in 1986 in Assisi, Italy. Among the participants were leaders from the Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths.

There was "a lot of resistance" to the Assisi meetings from the Curia, the Vatican's permanent bureaucracy, according to Rev. Keith Pecklers, a professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Some Catholic theologians and Vatican officials have long viewed interfaith dialogue as a slippery slope toward relativism, the idea that all religions are equally valid. The result, Pecklers said, has been crossed signals.

Vatican unease over outreach surfaced in 2003 when La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit magazine whose articles must be approved by the Vatican secretary of state, published a downbeat assessment of Christian-Muslim relations. It said the Vatican's professions of tolerance for Muslims had not been displayed equally by Muslims for Christians.

La Civilta Cattolica noted that Saudi Arabia refused to permit churches to be built on its territory but financed construction of mosques and schools in Europe, including Rome, "the very heart of Christianity."

Some Vatican officials worry about what they regard as aggressive religious demands within the growing Muslim community in Europe. Last spring, Muslims in the Spanish city of Cordoba asked for permission to pray inside what was once the city's mosque, but which has been a church since 1236. Their request was denied.

"One has to accept history and go forward," Archbishop Fitzgerald said at the time. "There are some Muslims who view Europe in major decline and have the goal and aspiration to Islamicize Europe."

Moderate dialogue

The church's dialogue with Muslims takes many forms, from private, one-on-one meetings between Vatican envoys and Islamic leaders to international conferences. A common criticism of the dialogue has been that Muslim participants almost invariably are moderates, not radicals. Lacunza-Balda, who heads a Vatican research group, said although criticism had mounted, alternatives to the late pope's approach have not emerged.

"Is there any other way except the road of dialogue?" he asks. "We are on a journey that can't stop."